It all began on the midnight of June 11, 1991, twenty days after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The fate of this mother went topsy turvy that day.
Arputham Ammal, mother of Perarivalan, one of the three on death row in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, gets chills down her spine when she goes down the memory lane.
“Twenty-two years have passed and there won’t be many who have gone through what I have. There are instances when God allows you to enjoy happiness and celebrate life at least at some point in your life. But for us, with each passing day all these years, life had been shifting from bad to worse,” says Arputham
Ammal who was recently in the state in connection with the book release of Adanja Vaathilukalkku Munpil penned by Anusree, a young journalist from Kozhikode, which narrates the traumatic incidents in Arputham Ammal’s life.
“My husband and myself were about to sleep when we heard a loud knock on our doors that night. We were shocked to see some policemen . They pushed in and ransacked our home. They examined the photograph of LTTE leader Prabhakaran that we had kept on the top of our television set and also scrutinised the letters written by Bhagyanathan, brother of Nalini, to my husband. Bhagyanathan had owned a publishing house and my husband, who used to write poems, had sent them to Bhagyanathan. All those letters were about publishing matters. Police said they were taking away those letters and they enquired about Arivu (Perarivalan).”
Perarivalan, who was pursuing his diploma in engineering, was in Chennai at that time. Little did the parents know the reason for those raids and its ‘connection’ with their son who was 19 years then.
Arivu was residing at the DK office in Chennai at that time and he was equally frightened about meeting the police. As expected, the police took away Arivu and said they would release him the very next day. That was the last day I saw my son free,” recollects 65-year-old Arputham Ammal.
Perarivalan’s arrest was recorded on June 18,1991, though he was picked up by the cops on June 12 as Ammal recounts.
“He had been kept behind bars unlawfully for more than a week. Each day we would go in the hope of seeing him, but in vain. One day, the officers blasted us and told us to bring a lawyer. I never knew why they demanded a lawyer and above all I was even more curious to know what wrong my son did. It was only a week later we came to know from newspapers Arivu was arrested in connection with the death of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Our son, who was a topper in all examinations and an equally talented boy in sports and other extracurricular activities, was charged with murder. The news came upon us like a curse”.
Ammal remembers those days she desperately wanted to touch her son’s hands at least.
“Initially, in the jail’s meeting room they used to keep glass bars as partition between inmates and the visitors. We were provided with a headphone which was inaudible. I cannot explain the agony we endured during those days. We approached the court to remove the glasses and they in turn made a hole which was really small, hard enough to touch a finger tip. We again went to court and finally they had the glass bars removed.”
Twenty-two years of struggle against law and courts. It was definitely a disastrous experience for this poor mother.
“Each judgement from the TADA court was horrifying. My daughters have luckily got good jobs and their salary is our sole income. My husband is in his early 70s and in poor health. Even I am old and losing my health. But that doesn’t mean our fight to get justice has been weakened. We will strive till Perarivalan, who is 43 now, is released,” she says.